Malaysian News Pays Tribute to Lives Lost on Flight 370

Several of Malaysia’s leading newspapers ran black-and-white front-page tributes to those aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 the day after authorities said the plane had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Beneath its banner, The New Straits Times wrote a condolence message to the next of kin of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the plane, already missing for 17 days. Its headline said simply, “Goodnight MH370.”

Relatives from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 read the Koran a hotel in Putrajaya on March 25.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Adding to the condolences are friends and family members of the passengers and crew, some of whom have posted messages of grief to their Facebook and Twitter pages.

The rough and turbulent waters where the plane is believed to have crashed have been the focus of an international hunt that has involved numerous debris sightings–none of which have produced conclusive evidence as to the plane’s whereabouts.

No wreckage has been collected and families of the passengers and crew on board the Boeing 777 jetliner have remained in a state of flux awaiting answers that haven’t come.

Malaysia Airlines, which has faced a barrage of criticism from frustrated relatives for its handling of the investigation, sent out a lengthy statement calling the plane’s disappearance “an unprecedented event requiring an unprecedented response.”

“We will continue to support the families–as we have done throughout. And to support the authorities as the search for definitive answers continues,” Malaysia Airlines Chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof said in the statement.

Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the company’s chief executive, said he felt great sorrow and pain for the families, noting that the airline too had lost colleagues in the crash. “The announcement made last night and shared with families is the reality which we must now accept,” he said in the statement.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he made the announcement on the plane’s fate based on new satellite data that puts its last position in a remote location in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean. Despite the lack of physical evidence, he said he chose to share the development, “out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families.”

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